Well, isn’t this befitting a sitting member of Congress: Rep. Maxine Waters, D-California, took to MSNBC national news to publicly slam members and supporters of President Donald Trump’s administration as “a bunch of scumbags.” Her words.
Why?
Or perhaps the better question is: Could you imagine if a Republican went on, say, Fox News and spoke similarly of Barack Obama’s administration while he was seated in the White House?
Here’s a bit of the backstory, starting with comments she made to host Chris Hayes about Team Trump’s Russia ties, as noted by Breitbart:
“Reince Priebus has been trying to clean up for Donald Trump for far too long. He’s the one that stuck with him all during the campaign when he was making outrageous statements. When he was basically lying and so his time is going to run out. He can’t continue to try to defend this president who is entangled with this Kremlin clan of his while they are all seeking really to get rid of these sanctions that are placed on Russia, because all of them are connected to the oil and gas industry. Just take a look at this.
“Take a look at, of course, Michael Flynn—long history of ties to the Russian government, including a paid speech at a party for RT. Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign manager, paid lobbyist for Viktor Yanukovych, the pro-Russian politician in Ukraine who fled to Russia in 2014. Carter Page, one of Trump’s foreign policy advisers doing during his campaign a frequent guest on Russian state media, held a personal stake in Russian oil and gas interest. Roger Stone, who worked in the Ukraine. Wilbur Ross, Trump’s nominee for secretary of commerce was a business partner of Viktor.
“And a major financial project involving the bank of Cyprus. And, of course, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who was the one who negotiated it, the multi-billion dollar drilling contract with Putin where they were going to drill in the Arctic, and it has been stopped because of the sanctions that were placed by Obama. And I want to tell you, I believe that Tillerson’s real job is to get in here and get those sanctions lifted. But all of them want them lifted because this clan, this Kremlin clan is all about getting the oil and gas money and doing the drilling, and they need this president.”
And her reason for bringing up all that?
Waters said “they need this president” to lift the sanctions against Russia.
She went on:
“Not only to lift these sanctions but to take over all of these Soviet countries and pull them back into the Soviet Union so they can have access to all of these resources. It’s clear to me and I just think the American people have to have a better understand what’s going on. This is a bunch of scumbags. That’s what they are.”
Hayes jumped on the words, prompting her for explanation.
Again, from Breitbart, more of the exchange:
“HAYES: Who do you mean that when you call them scumbags?
“WATERS: All of these people that are organized with these oil and gas interest in the administration and friends of the President of the United States, this back channeling that you see. These are a bunch of scumbags, that’s what they are.
“HAYES: You mean the secretary of state of the United States?
“WATERS: Well I tell you this, Tillerson is there to get these sanctions lifted. I believe it. Just watch him. He’s going to continue to work on it. This is important for him. He was there because he negotiated the deal for Exxon with Putin.”
Waters has previously called Trump dangerous to America, and in recent weeks, has taken to calling for his impeachment.
She has that natural ability to chose just the right words while still maintaining diplomacy. What a sweety.